


sights (i wasn't supposed to see)

by viktory_arts



Series: sights (i wasn't supposed to see) and other stories [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Natsume Yuujinchou Fusion, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bullying, Character Development, Character Study, Childhood Trauma, Fast Burn (It's Me Guys), Fluff, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Getting Together, Hinata Shouyou Has ADHD, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Influenced by Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Kageyama Tobio has Social Anxiety, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mutual Pining, Slice of Life, Social Anxiety, Team as Family, They still play volleyball don't worry, Yôkai, all original characters are minor unless directly stated otherwise, everything that happens in canon happens here, i explain the world, just with more yokai, some yokai stick around, you don't need to have watched natsume's book of friends to read this fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:26:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23333830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viktory_arts/pseuds/viktory_arts
Summary: Hinata Shouyou knew he was different from other kids- other people, from a very young age. He knew that the things- yokai- were not something anybody else could see. He was tormented by the creatures that haunted him and made fun of by the other kids his age for his nervous tendencies and seeming clumsiness.Then, in Hinata's already topsy-turvy world, Kageyama Tobio presented himself and, for the first time, maybe Shouyou could have someone who understands him.Someone to call his own.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Series: sights (i wasn't supposed to see) and other stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678036
Comments: 11
Kudos: 53





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> tell me what you think of this idea of story and anything you would like to see in the story! i'm totally up for ideas!

Hinata Shouyou knew he was different from other kids- other people, from a very young age. He knew that the things- yokai- were not something anybody else could see. His father, a paranoid, anxious man, left the Hinata household around the time Shouyou turned four. 

“I’m not going to raise a- a  _ schizophrenic! _ ” His father had said to his mother one night. Shouyou had been on his way to his parents’ bedroom to tell them about the monster under his bed. The monster had a large, large mouth and long, sharp teeth. Its eyes were a blank white in the expanse of its black, smokey body. It had been terrorizing Shouyou for a couple of nights now; whispering with its crackled voice in Shouyou’s ear, “I’m going to crunch your bones between my teeth, and suck the blood from your sweet, warm body.” 

Shouyou didn’t understand what a “schizophrenic” was, but he did know that “raising” someone meant him. Shouyou was confused, and since he was already on edge from the monster that was hiding out in his room, he went to walk into his parents’ bedroom, but he stopped when he heard his mother speak.

“He’s our son, Hizashi! He’s not schizophrenic, he’s four! It’s probably just his imagination!” His mother whisper-yelled. Shouyou’s father’s face darkened and he looked down at the floor, his eyes as blank as his expression.

“You haven’t seen the look in his eyes when he sees… sees the  _ monsters _ .” His father rumbled lowly, then looked up into his wife’s eyes suddenly, a wild look in his eyes. Shouyou felt his breath catch for a reason unknown to him. His father had started to shake, shoulders tightened and fists clenched so hard that his knuckles turned a milky white. For some reason, Shouyou began to shake, too.

“He thinks he sees monsters, Akira!” His eyes were wide with paranoia, but he continued while the other two members of the family watched with fear in their hearts. “His eyes focus on nothing and there’s genuine fear in them! I just-” his father lowered his steadily rising voice. “I just… can’t. I can’t deal with him when he’s… like  _ that _ .” Shouyou’s father said the last word with such venom that it made the four-year-old Shouyou step back in shock. Even his young brain could pick up that his father was talking about  _ him. _ About how he couldn’t deal-  _ love _ Shouyou anymore. 

The four-year-old’s breathing started to pick up a bit, his chest starting to heave in and out at an irregular, but a quickly increasing rate. His head started to feel light, and he stumbled backwards, tripping over his two feet, landing with a loud thud on the floor, loud enough to get his parents’ attention. His mother and father’s heads swiveled towards the source of the sound and saw their small son shaking. His mother immediately had tears shining in her dark blue eyes and she rushed to her son’s side.

His father, however, stood there and just watched Shouyou like he would warily watch a monster, contempt and a slight twinge of fear in his golden brown eyes. His bright orange hair, to which Shouyou’s was identical, flashed in the dim light of his parents’ bedroom lamp, giving mood lighting to his face. 

Then Shouyou heard it.

The black mass's swishing body coming closer, closer,  _ closer _ . Shouyou choked on the mucus that had started to build up in his throat and he froze as he saw the monster come around the corner, slowly and with a presence heavier than a thousand pounds of steel. The four-year-old made a noise in the back of his throat, and he spared a glance towards his mother, who was looking at him with worried confusion, her dark brown eyebrows scrunched together, making wrinkles on her forehead. 

He turned his gaze back towards the monster that was getting closer to him, that was whispering threats to him in its crackly, airy voice. The shine of its teeth in the dim lighting of the house made Shouyou hold back a scream and bury himself into his mother’s side. 

“Shouyou, baby, what’s wrong?” His mother tried to soothe, pushing his red hair back with a gentle hand, but Shouyou still flinched at the contact. Shouyou could hear his mother’s heart beating steadily, but at a higher rate than usual as he tucked himself closer to her. 

“Monster…” He mumbled quietly, too quiet to hear for the two adults in the room. But loud enough for the monster to hear him. He heard a throaty laugh  _ erupt _ from the monster and Shouyou flinched, hard. His legs were shaking badly and his breathing was going fast enough that his head was becoming lighter than air, and his thoughts were becoming cloudy. The only thing the child could think of was the monster’s teeth and its laughter as it made its way closer to Shouyou.

“Shou-?” His mother started but stopped when she felt her son leap away from her side and back himself up against their gray bedroom wall, body shaking and chest heaving. She looked to her husband for help, but he just stood there, brown eyes gazing blankly at their son, expressionless. 

“Mommy, make it go away! I- I don’t want it to eat me!” Shouyou  _ screamed _ and his mother startled and looked to where Shouyou’s eyes were focused, fear bleeding out of every pore of her child.

There wasn’t anything there.

“Shouyou, baby, there’s nothing-” She tried to soothe but was interrupted by her husband who went over to their son before she could. She hoped that he had finally come to his senses and was going over to help their son calm down from what was obviously a nightmare or something along those lines.

_ But his eyes… _ the back of Shouyou’s mother’s mind said to her and she pursed her lips as she stood up and watched her husband make his way over to their son. She was shocked when she saw her husband lean down and grab Shouyou by the front of his nightshirt, the one with all the little sports balls on it.

_ “Stop it!”  _ Hizashi screamed at his son and Akira quickly ran over, and went to stop  _ whatever _ her husband was doing. With frantic movements, she pulled Hizashi’s hand off of their son and she looked at him with a sense of fear. Their son was a sobbing mess by this point, no more than a shaking body wracked with sobs and snot coming out of his nose. He was still mumbling about a monster under his breath and he held his head between his hands and fell into the fetal position. 

“Please please please please please please-” Shouyou was sobbing into the carpet and Akira was at a loss for what to do. Her husband was still fuming, clenched fists and face as red as his hair, fear at the center of his expression.

A chill ran through Akira and Hizashi in that moment, as if something had passed through them, cooling their insides and settling a cool wind in their lungs. It made them both pause for a moment, the sudden chill unexpected.

Then Shouyou  _ screamed _ .

The sound was so bloodcurdling, it turned Hizashi and Akira’s blood to ice. It stilled their hearts for a beat. It sounded like Shouyou was  _ dying _ .

Then, suddenly, it  _ stopped _ .

Akira rushed over to their son’s side, and fell to her knees when she got close enough. She immediately put her son’s small chest to check for a heartbeat. 

_ Thump, thumpthump, thump. _

She breathed out a sigh of relief, her entire body collapsing. She looked to her husband and saw his eyes wide and his body still. Her heart stopped again and she held one hand out to her husband, a final call for help.

“Hizash-” She started and her husband just shook his head quickly, and he backed up, like he was backing away from some dangerous creature. His golden brown eyes that Akira had fallen in love with were clouded with so many emotions. They were looking straight at Shouyou’s sleeping body.

“I  _ can’t _ .” He whispered and he backed out of the room, leaving Akira and a passed out Shouyou in her arms, alone.

***

A few months later, Akira and Hizashi were divorced. When they signed the final papers, Akira gained full custody of Shouyou and the apparent new baby that Hizashi was leaving her with, he left. He didn’t leave a trace of himself in their home. He took all his belongings and he took the printed photos of their marriage with him. He didn’t even leave with saying goodbye, he just looked at Akira sadly, eyes twinkling with sadness, but not regret.

The bed wasn’t near as warm at night for Akira. 

As for Shouyou, he went quiet for a long while after the divorce. He wasn’t silent, of course, because Shouyou didn’t know the meaning of  _ silence _ . But he was subdued. His emotions and bright smile weren’t quite so… bright anymore. His eyes looked older than he was, as he was still only four years-old, but they seemed to be the eyes of a man with the world on his shoulders. 

Akira used to love Shouyou’s eyes, because they reminded her of Hizashi’s, but now, all they reminded her of was the  _ memory _ of her ex-husband. They now reminded her of the night when everything went to shit. Where Hizashi had finally had  _ enough _ and he  _ left them _ .

The only good thing Shouyou and Akira had to look forward to was the birth of the newest, and probable last, part of their family.

(Akira prayed to whatever god would listen that her new baby wouldn’t end up like Shouyou. Anything but being cursed like Shouyou obviously had been.)

Hinata Natsu was brought into the world a little over nine months after the incident that caused Hizashi to leave them. She was a very healthy baby, perfectly average weight, perfectly average height and senses for a baby.

She was perfect in Akira’s eyes. 

Shouyou seemed to think so, too. 

Akira was a little afraid that the accidents and episodes Shouyou made would upset her, or worse, get her hurt. Shouyou had been having less and less episodes as of late, but he was always coming home from school with new scratches and bruises. He always insisted that they were just from roughhousing on the playground. Sometimes he would come home late from school, and Akira couldn’t get a solid answer from him as to why. When she offered to take him to school instead of having him take the train, he always declined, stating that he was a “big boy now!” and Akira couldn’t hurt his little pride by insisting that she go with him.

Natsu, decidedly, loved her big brother. Everyday she would cry for a little bit after he left for school, and clapped happily and made happy noises whenever he got back. Shouyou loved her too, always playing with her and making goofy faces at her. He told her about his day everyday, and Akira thought that it was the most precious thing she had ever laid her eyes on.

Slowly, bit by bit, Shouyou’s episodes subsided to a very rare occurrence. He smiled more and more, his golden brown eyes always lit up whenever he saw Natsu, and he always hugged his mother. 

Akira smiled and took a sip of her coffee as she saw Shouyou showing Natsu how to write his name in hiragana. She merely slobbered and clapped, which just made Shouyou grin and keep talking about all the kids in his class, and everything was fine.


	2. an average day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shouyou's average after school day

Shouyou was running, which was nothing new. Running from a dangerous, man-eating yokai, which was also nothing new, much to Shouyou’s chagrin. His legs were pumping at a fast, but steady rate, unlike his heart, which was beating erratically. The pounding from his heart was loud enough to reach his ears. His blood was warm and rushing, his body heaving with the stress of running for his life.

He was panting short breaths as he made it to the shrine nearest to his house, about half a mile away from it. He leaped into the shrine and watched as the yokai chasing him bounced off the invisible barrier that the protection from the local good fortune god that Shouyou was forever grateful for. 

The yokai, a large, spider-like creature, tried a couple of more times to enter the small shrine, but to no avail. It’s body was held back by the barrier, and Shouyou didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until the spider-like creature hissed, venom spilling off of its long, sharp, spindly teeth. The clear venom dripped down onto the grass right outside the shrine and where it landed, the grass turned yellow and dried up, dying instantly. The yokai roared one more time, as if it was promising for what was to come if Shouyou were to leave the safety of the shrine, and the redhead repressed a shudder at the thought.

Once the yokai left after a long while of pacing outside the shrine, Shouyou finally exhaled, releasing the pent up stress of his body and finally took the moment to collapse into the floor, soaked in sweat and waiting for his heart to stop beating so fast that it felt like it was going to burst right out of his chest. 

The twelve-year-old eventually took off his book bag and set it down on the splintery old wood of the shrine floor. He sighed, rubbing his tired eyes with a sweaty palm, and opened his dirt-stained dark blue backpack to rummage around for his phone. Once he found it, he clicked on the first notification, which was from his mother.

**Mom :**

**Where are you? It’s almost dinnertime. I don’t care if you’re out with your friends, but you need to tell me about it first!**

Shouyou was thinking about his answer when another notification from his mother sounded again.

**Mom :**

**Shouyou, answer me right now!**

**Shouyou :**

**sorry, mom! i’m on my way home now, i was just hanging out with izumi!**

**Mom :**

  1. **See you soon, sweetie!**



At that message, Shouyou smiled, sighed and put his phone away, and looked around the small, well-worn shrine. The walls were a muted red and there was an offering place at the center of the small room. There were a couple of bunches of fresh fruit and vegetables, but nothing overabundant. Shouyou then looked inside his book bag for his uneaten chocolate bar from his packed lunch that day. 

“Sorry, I don’t have anything else to offer you.” Shouyou mumbled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. The redhead had never  _ seen _ the god that was housed in the shrine, but wherever the god was, Shouyou always made sure to leave an offering when he could. This shrine had saved him more times than the kid cared to count. 

After a few minutes of a quiet silence, one that Shouyou didn’t get very often, the redhead picked up his book bag, and peaked his head outside the shrine to check for the yokai that had chased him there in the first place. All he saw was the clear, sunny sky and the grass swaying in the wind. A couple of flowers that the old couple down the street had planted last year were poking out of the ground, new and colorful against the dull, faded colors of the shrine.

Shouyou took a deep breath, looked around the old and worn shrine one last time before nodding to himself, and made the trek towards his house, stomach growling and homework heavy in the backpack on his shoulders.

***

“Shou-chan!” Natsu greeted and Shouyou smiled at his younger sister, who was rubbing her eyes tiredly, wiping the sleep from her impromptu evening nap from them. He patted her head, which was slowly creeping up to be his height, even though he was almost five years older than her. _ “She just grows like a weed” _ , his mom always said whenever Shouyou complained about it.

“Shouyou, baby, how was Izumi-chan? What all did you two do?” His mother called from their small kitchen. She walked out, pushing strands of shoulder-length dark brown hair behind her ear. Shouyou always felt sad that he and Natsu looked more like their father; it was probably hard on their mother to see almost carbon copies (if Shouyou’s faulty memory of when he was about four or five is to be correct) of him. His mother didn’t often speak of Shouyou’s dad, but when she rarely did, it was always with a somber look in her eyes that made her sad for the next few days following the chat about him.

Shouyou learned early on to not ask about his dad. Or about why he left. It just soured the mood of both Shouyou and his mother.

“Shouyou?” His mother asked, and the short redheaded boy jumped a bit at the sudden calling of his name that brought him out of his deep thinking. He racked his brain for a second about the topic his mom had asked him about, and thankfully, he remembered what it was this time.

“It was fun! Me and Izumi played basketball at the park!” Lies. Shouyou was running for his life away from the monster that no one else could see. But his mother didn’t know this, and just smiled brightly at her son, which made something feel like it was cracking in Shouyou’s heart. He hated lying, but he hated seeing his mother get  _ that _ expression on her face whenever Shouyou had mentioned the monsters he saw before he realized that, truly, no one else could see them, more. 

He hated seeing his mother’s face when he came home with bruises and scratches that neither the teachers or him could explain. He hated seeing the flash of the expression she wore the night that his dad said that he just couldn’t anymore. The silent anguish that filled her face as she held Shouyou in her arms that were usually so warm, but felt cold as they wrapped around him.

Shouyou hated lying, but he hated seeing his mother like  _ that _ more. 

“Did you shoot any three-pointers?” She joked, knowing full well that Shouyou couldn’t make a three-pointer if it killed him. The basketball just never fit in his hands quite right, the weight too much and the size too large for his small hands. He wasn’t awful at basketball, thanks to his natural athleticism, but he wasn’t  _ good _ by any means.

“No, mom, I didn’t shoot any three-pointers.” Shouyou moaned and flopped onto the couch dramatically, letting his dirty backpack drop onto the floor next to him. Natsu laughed and crawled up with him onto the small couch, tucking herself besides her older brother. His mother saw the state of his backpack and grimaced. 

“Really, Shouyou?” She asked as she went over and picked up the dirt and mud-covered book bag. The seams had been torn, Shouyou realized, on the bottom from one of the yokai from two days ago. Shouyou hid his face on the couch, not wanting to deal with the confused and concerned expression that was sure to be on his mother’s face.

“Sorry, mom.” He mumbled into the couch and when he looked up to see his mother’s face, he saw an amused expression on her face, which kind of shocked Shouyou. The brunette was smirking and held the dirty bookbag with one hand on her hip.

“What am I gonna do with you, little gremlin child?” She said and the redhead blinked a couple of times before laughing right along with his mother. Natsu was confused at the whole situation, but nevertheless giggled as well. 

For the moment, Shouyou forgot about the yokai that haunted him, and the worries that went along with it, and just soaked in the love of his small family, laughter filling the air of their small apartment.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me what you think! i wanna know what you think please! lmao i said that twice.


End file.
